This invention relates to the orthopedic surgical procedures, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for securing soft tissues, tendons and ligaments to bone during orthopedic surgical repair procedures.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is often necessary to secure soft tissues, tendons and ligaments to bone during orthopedic surgical repair procedures. In the past, various methods and devices have been developed to accomplish this soft tissue attachment. In one known procedure, the orthopedic surgeon would make large incisions into the soft tissue to expose the bone, drill angled holes through the bone, and then threading sutures through the holes in order to finally achieve ligament attachment. This known procedure was extremely complex and time consuming.
Due to the difficulties and complications associated with the previous procedures, alternative methods and devices have been developed. One class of devices for attaching soft tissues to bone, developed to overcome some of the disadvantages of the previous devices and procedures, are suture anchors. A suture anchor generally comprises an anchor member which can be seated within the bone. A suture strand is secured to the anchor member and, thus, is available for aiding in attaching soft tissues, tendons and ligaments at the bone. Suture anchors usually require less complex surgical procedures than those associated with earlier methods for attaching soft tissue to bone.
In utilizing some of the known suture anchors, an anchor receiving hole must first be pre-drilled into the bone before the suture anchor can be seated therein. The suture anchor device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,520 to Goble et al. eliminates such a pre-drilling step. Generally, this reference teaches a pointed suture anchor that is forcefully driven into the bone. One arm, or end, of a suture strand is secured within a bore of the suture anchor. A force is then applied to the suture anchor through a driver member which is able to removably engage the suture anchor. After the suture anchor has been driven into the bone, the driver member is withdrawn, leaving the suture anchor seated within the bone. Once this seating procedure has been completed, the other arm of the suture strand extends away from the suture anchor and remains available for attaching various soft tissues, tendons and ligaments to the bone.
A disadvantage associated with the suture anchor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,520 relates to the fact that the suture anchor receives and retains only one of the two arms of the suture strand. That is, only a single arm of the suture strand extends out from the suture anchor once the suture anchor has been seated within the bone. Accordingly, two separate suture anchors are generally required in order to provide the two arms which are generally needed for forming a knot. It will therefore be appreciated that it is desirable to have a single suture anchor in which both arms of the suture strand extend from the anchor, since the accessibility of each of the arms would facilitate the formation of knots for attachment procedures.